Perfect Match

All it took was a pandemic. In the months leading up to March 2020, we met Leslie Merinoff-Kwasnieski, her husband Brian and their business partner Paul who run Matchbook Distilling Co. and The Lin Beach House in Greenport, NY. When the pandemic hit we all hunkered down in the North Fork of Long Island together. Though the period was scary in many ways for much of the world, it also provided a unique and cherished experience: the outside world fell away and we spent months with this small group of friends sharing drinks, cooking over fires, and talking about dreams. In this self-contained space where the impossible had already happened (the world coming to a standstill) we talked about doing something that was once a pipe dream -- starting a cider business.